Forecast

Darien home invasion suspects arraigned

John Nickerson| on January 31, 2014

STAMFORD -- Before two Hamden residents broke into an occupied Darien home and struck a 68-year-old woman with a small wooden box, the two were apparently driving around town looking for a home to burglarize, police reports in their court file indicate.

After Darien police processed the contents of the car the two were in when they were apprehended just after 3 p.m. Thursday, Norwalk police were interested in some of the items in the car that were stolen from a home in that city Wednesday. In an interview Thursday night, one of the suspects admitted to breaking into the Norwalk home, according to court documents.

At the Stamford courthouse Friday, Michael Apuzzo, 24, and Alexis Jordan, 22, both of 91 Costanzo Court, Hamden, were arraigned on charges that include home invasion, possession of burglars' tools, possession of narcotics and first-degree larceny.

Apuzzo is a convicted felon with burglary, larceny and drug convictions on his record, police said.

According to a police report of the robbery, police received a "frantic" call from a female resident on Priscilla Lane saying she had just found a strange young woman -- Jordan -- in her home.

According to the Priscilla Lane resident's statement, she had just gotten out of the shower and walked into her dressing room when saw the strange woman standing there with a small brown box in her hand.

"I said `Who are you? What are you doing here?'" the woman wrote in her statement.

Jordan pushed the homeowner aside, and when the homeowner grabbed her assailant by the arm, Jordan struck her on the side of her head with a small wooden jewelry box in her hand and fled.

The resident ran after Jordan and saw her drive out of the driveway in a dirty gray car.

The woman called police with a description of the car, and Apuzzo and Jordan were spotted a short time later driving south on Hollow Tree Ridge Road over the railroad tracks.

Jordan told the officer who pulled them over that she and Apuzzo were driving from Greenwich and got lost. She said they stopped somewhere in town to get directions and that a resident gave her some attitude, but denied getting into a physical altercation with anyone.

Apuzzo said the two were driving from Greenwich and they got off Interstate-95 for gas. He said Jordan told him she knew the area and asked him to drive around. He said the two were lost and stopped at a house to get directions.

He said Jordan walked up to the house and before she returned he heard yelling.

A little later Jordan admitted to police that she entered the house. "Okay, I did it. I went into the house," she said according to the report. Jordan said she was "really tight for money," the report said.

Police said they matched the shoes worn by Apuzzo and Jordan with tracks that went to the side door of the home where the entry was made.

Inside the duo's car, police found a little over a half-gram of heroin and two Oxycodone pills and needles in Jordan's purse, which also contained a hammer, pliers and a box cutter. They also found a Tiffany ring with a one carat diamond worth $15,000 and a diamond gold band worth $5,000 that had both been stolen from the Priscilla Lane home, the police report said.

Also found in the car was a Pandora bead bracelet, which interested Norwalk police, as well as a tennis bracelet, V-shaped necklace, numerous gold necklaces and the wooden jewelry box, the report said.

A police report said that Jordan confessed to a Norwalk detective that the two burglarized a home in Norwalk on Wednesday

Police said they also got a report from a woman from Rocaton Road who said she and some other neighbors saw the two in their neighborhood just before the robbery, a police report said. The woman said the two looked strange, as if they were "drugged up."

In court Friday, Judge Thomas Colin ordered the two held in lieu of a $250,000 court appearance bond and transferred the case to the courthouse's Part A docket where the most serious crimes in the area are adjudicated. They are scheduled to return to court Feb. 11.